Presley, Eve and Von Teese Go 'Glam' for AIDS
Sept. 8, 2006 — -- The king of rock's daughter, the mother of new wave punk, and Marilyn Manson's wife are dolling themselves up to fight AIDS and spread the word about the importance of safe sex.
Together with hip-hop icon Eve, Lisa Marie Presley, Debbie Harry and Dita Von Teese are the unlikely new faces in ads for MAC Cosmetics' Viva Glam VI, a line of lipstick and lip gloss that devotes 100 percent of sales to HIV and AIDS programs.
Lipstick has already proved to be a potent fundraising tool. Since 1996, the MAC AIDS fund has raised more than $70 million, with the help of former spokesmodels Christina Aguilera, Missy Elliott, Pamela Anderson and Boy George.
"It's a very good cause," says Presley. "It needs to be dealt with and it is diligently being done by MAC. It's a true-blue situation."
Presley acknowledges that the company reached out to its diverse new group of models to cover as broad a range of people as possible.
The 61-year-old Harry, best known for her string of hits in the early 1980s with Blondie, was one of the first celebrities to become an AIDS activist. "I think my goals have always been sort of the same about AIDS. It's straightforward. Get it under control and make sure people, young people, especially, are educated about it."
The provocative ads, featuring each of the women in sexy poses, will be accompanied by messages that speak to AIDS prevention.
Von Tess -- a provocative performance artist who married shock rocker Marilyn Manson in 2005 -- certainly doesn't dress like your typical schoolhouse role model, but that might help get her message across. She'll be preaching safe sex from a bathtub-size champagne glass.
"Being in control of your body and deciding what you're going to do, and caring for yourself, that's sexy," Von Tess says. "Caring for your body is sexy. That's what people need to remember. They need to stand up for themselves and be prepared to have safe sex."
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